Awakening
by vulnerable88
Summary: Finn leaves for Iraq and asks Puck to watch over his girlfriend Rachel while he's gone. As Rachel and Puck get closer while missing their friend, feelings start to change...AU
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own anything…None of the characters in this chapter, nor Glee…

Puck stared at his best friend, wondering how in the world life had come to this. They were twenty-one, but often Puck still felt like he was in high school. Why was his best friend in uniform, ready to be shipped off to Iraq?

Finn was currently whispering with his girlfriend, Rachel Berry, who was obviously trying very hard not to break down in the middle of Finn's good bye party. She had been clinging to his arm all night, which was very atypical for her. Yes, Rachel and Finn were a couple, but they usually weren't all that into large amounts of PDA. The fact that Rachel had been by Finn's side practically all night, gazing up at him while barely looking around at anyone else, was a good hint that something was off.

Puck noticed Finn motioning him over, so he found his way through the throngs of people who had come to bid Finn good bye and wish him well and tell him to stay safe.

"Hey, Puck, question for you," Finn said. "Would you still be able to take me to the station tomorrow?" Finn asked, glancing down at Rachel who now had tears in her eyes.

"I thought-" Puck started, but when he saw the meaningful look Finn was sending his way while discreetly nodding to Rachel, he understood. "Yeah, sure, man. What time?"

As they figured out the details about when Puck would pick Finn up and how long it'd take them to get to the destination, Puck reflected back on his life. It still seemed so crazy that he was standing here with Finn and Rachel, his best friends. Well, Finn had been his best friend since they were three, but it was only when they entered high school that Finn had met Rachel and befriended her. Then, once Finn and Rachel started dating, Puck would hang out with Rachel more than he used to, so they kind of became friends by default. Of course, Puck didn't exactly have _only_ platonic feelings for Rachel, but he'd _never_ tell that to anyone.

See, when Finn met Rachel initially, he had naturally introduced Puck to her as well. While she wasn't the type that Puck usually went for, there was just something about Rachel Berry that drew him to her. He still remembered the fateful day he decided he'd just man up and ask her out…

_Junior Year at McKinley High_

_ Puck had come in early that day, determined to have a date with Rachel by the end of the day, preferably before lunch. He had arrived earlier than usual because he needed the time to mentally prep himself. He figured that he'd wait somewhere near Rachel's locker, approach her, ask her out, and feel accomplished enough by first period, that he'd feel he deserved a break and head to the nurse's office for a nap. _

_ Puck had started instituting_ _his plan, waiting in what he hoped was a surreptitious location not far from Rachel's locker. When Brittany stopped to talk to him and ask him what he thought she should get Mike for a birthday present, he figured if he chatted with her for a while, it'd make his whole plan that much smoother. Except that apparently he spent a bit too much time pondering ideas with Brittany, because when he cast a sly glance in the direction of Rachel's locker, he saw her there…talking to Finn, who had that eager look on his face that Puck knew was his "I really like you, would you please go out with me and we'll live happily ever after" look. _

_ Quickly telling Brittany that he just remembered Mike had said he wanted a tie for his birthday, Puck headed off in the direction of Rachel and Finn, hoping that he had been wrong about Finn's expression. He caught the end of Finn's sentence as he approached._

_ "…so tonight at 7?" Finn grinned._

_ Rachel beamed up at him, a huge grin on her face. "That sounds great, Finn. I'm looking forward."_

_ Finn suddenly noticed Puck. "Oh, hey, Puck! What's up?" he said even more cheerfully than usual._

_ "Nothing," Puck grunted and moved away quickly. He couldn't believe he'd missed his chance because of Mike's stupid birthday present. _

_ "It's okay," he reassured himself. "Finn and Rachel won't work out (no offense to either of them), and when they realize that they're just not meant to be like that, you'll step up and get your chance." _

Except that they'd never broken up, and Puck never got his chance.

A.N. Hi, everyone! This is my new story; I hope you've enjoyed the first chapter. I will let you know right now that I don't really know much about the army, so if something doesn't seem realistic or you're like, "Uh, that's not the way it is at all!" I'm sorry…You can let me know and I will try to fix it. I don't plan on putting much jargon in the story because I don't exactly want to be using wrong terms or whatever, but if I do, I'm apologizing in advance. I hope you forgive me.

Please review!


	2. Chapter 2

The day of Finn's departure was kind of grey and misty. It wasn't exactly cold outside, but there was still that chill in the air that seeped into your bones, no matter how much you tried to protect yourself against it.

Puck had woken up early that morning, having had difficulty sleeping the night before due to nightmares about his best friend being killed. It was only after he repeated the mantra of "You need to be awake and strong for Rachel" to himself a number of times that he was able to fall asleep, even though it was only for a few hours.

When Puck pulled up to Finn's house, he saw Rachel's car already parked by the curb; he wasn't surprised. He walked up to the door, knocked once, and then let himself in. Mrs. Hudson looked like she had just been on the way to answer the door. Tears were pouring down her face, her normally friendly eyes sad, her dark hair a mess.

"Oh, hello, Noah," she managed to get out.

"Hi, Mrs. Hudson," he said, and went over to give her a hug. Normally, Puck wasn't exactly a touchy-feely type of guy, but this situation called for some atypical behavior. "He'll be okay," he said, awkwardly patting her back lightly. Finn's mother had always been like a second mother to him, but it didn't mean that he was used to playing the role of comforter to her.

"Oh, Puck, you're here; great," Finn said, coming down the stairs, Rachel trailing after him. "Do you think we could start loading some of my stuff into your truck?"

"Sure," Puck replied, grabbing a bag. When he came back in, Finn was hugging his mother, tears slipping down his face as well.

"I'll be okay, Mom. I'll be in touch as much as I can, okay? Don't worry about me," Finn attempted, but it was a weak reassurance and didn't seem to make anyone feel much better.

"You just take care of yourself, okay? I love you, Finn. Just take care…" Mrs. Hudson managed to choke out, then she let go of Finn and walked up the stairs slowly, as if the weight of the world was on her shoulders.

"We have like 3 minutes before we need to leave, man," Puck reminded Finn, and he heard Rachel choke out a sob.

"Thanks, Puck," Finn said, glancing at him shortly before turning his attention to his girlfriend. Rachel ran into Finn's arms, tightening her arms around him, and Puck wasn't sure if she'd ever let go. A lump started to form in Puck's throat, the reality of the situation starting to settle in.

Nobody said anything for what seemed like forever, but was actually only a couple of minutes. Finally, Finn loosened Rachel's grasp on him and looked her in the eyes, his gaze so intense, Puck felt like looking away. Then, he lowered his lips onto Rachel's in an action so passionate and filled with emotion, Puck really _did_ look away. He only looked back when he heard Finn start talking again.

"It's time for me to go, Rach," Finn said softly.

Rachel's sobs were perhaps the most pathetic (in the truest sense of the word) thing that Puck had ever heard; his heart twisted just from hearing them.

"I can't do it!" she sobbed, "I can't let you go! Stay here! Please Finn!" she begged, her voice breaking at the end of each utterance.

Finn's voice broke, too, "I can't, Rach, you know that. I signed up; it's my duty."

Rachel threw her arms around Finn again, clinging to him as if afraid he'd disappear into thin air right there. "Don't!" she cried. "Don't! Say you can't because you injured your knee and you won't be able to serve! Tell them something! _Anything!_" Tears were pouring down her face like a regular faucet.

Once again, Finn lowered his lips to hers, but for only a brief kiss this time. "I love you, Rachel Berry. Don't you forget that, okay?"

"I love you, too," she whispered, her voice raw as Finn extracted himself from her embrace.

Feeling incredibly invasive because of the emotion-charged scene he had just witnessed, Puck didn't even bother asking if Finn was ready to leave. He saw the look on Finn's face and knew it was time. Casting a last look back at Rachel, Puck headed out the door to his truck, Finn only a few paces behind him.

As Puck started his truck, he saw Rachel in the doorway, looking as brokenhearted as anyone could, tears streaming down her face still, but a determined look on her face as well. She smiled a little (or as best as she could), and waved good bye; Finn waved back, then said, "Drive."

The two friends were quiet for most of the trip. It was only when they were about five minutes from their destination that Finn spoke up.

"Thanks for taking me, Puck. You can probably guess why I decided it was best that neither my mother nor Rachel take me."

Puck nodded, sensing that Finn had more to say.

"I want to ask you something," Finn continued. "I want you to watch out for Rachel, okay? I'm more concerned about her than my mother, actually. My mother has her work to keep her busy and her coworkers to distract her and other neighbors to help her out. Rachel has always viewed singing as something that we did together, so her work isn't exactly going to help distract her." Finn gulped loudly, but went on. "I wanted to ask you to promise me that you'll keep an eye out for Rachel, make sure she doesn't lock herself in her room and not come out. Make sure she gets out, remembers how to laugh, has fun sometimes, okay? You're the only one I could think of who would really be a comfort to Rachel; she'll feel like you know what she's going through, more than anyone else." Finn heaved a sigh at the end. "Do I have your word?"

"Yeah, of course. I'll do whatever I can," Puck said. He was just pulling up to the place where he was supposed to be dropping Finn off.

"Thanks, man, I knew I could count on you," Finn said. It was actually the last thing he said to Puck before he left. He wordlessly grabbed his bags, pulled Puck in for a hug, stepped back, and walked away, toward where other people were waiting.

The lump in Puck's throat was starting to feel like a humongous cotton ball, obstructing his airways and his ability to speak. It didn't, however, affect his ability to think, and all he could think was, _I just said good bye to my best friend who's leaving to serve in Iraq. My best friend just asked me to look after and comfort his girlfriend, for whom I happen to majorly have feelings, and who is totally devastated about her boyfriend's departure. How do I do this?_

A.N. Hey, everyone! Thanks for the reviews so far! Please keep them coming! They really encourage me! Also, I hope you enjoyed this chapter…I wanted it to be very emotional, and I hope I got that across. Please let me know what you think! Happy holidays!


	3. Chapter 3

Three days later, Puck decided it was time to go visit Rachel. He'd put it off until now, but he _had_ promised Finn, and he wanted to make sure Rachel was doing alright. He drove over to her apartment (she had moved out of her fathers' house a year ago) and parked. Walking up to her door, he wasn't sure of what he was going to say to her if she answered, but he figured he'd wing it.

He knocked and waited for the door to swing open. There was no response, so he knocked again. Finally, a minute later, the door cracked open a bit and he saw a sliver of a pale face peek out.

"Oh, hi, Noah. What're you doing here?" Rachel asked, wearily, opening the door a fraction of an inch wider.

"Uh, can I come in?" Puck asked. He wanted to wait until he was actually inside before he asked her how she was doing.

Rachel sighed heavily, opening the door even more, and Puck resisted the urge to bring out the sarcasm in this situation by saying, "Don't do me any favors." But he didn't, knowing that sarcasm wouldn't get him anywhere now.

Once he was inside, Puck took a look around. He hadn't been here for a while, but nothing much had changed since he was last here. Rachel had had some sort of birthday party for Finn here last year and Puck had been invited, obviously, and had come. It was a homey sort of place, a charcoal leather couch from Value City against one wall, a blanket thrown over the top of it. There was a rug on the floor, too, but nothing too fancy. Everything was chosen with good taste, but very simply. Some may be surprised, expecting Rachel to go for loud, unique designs and stuff, but when it came down to it, she really had quite simple tastes.

"So," Puck began, hesitantly, "how're you doing?"

"Fine," Rachel replied, monotonously, as if she'd been asked it hundreds of times before (she probably had…he's sure Glee friends and her fathers were concerned about her, and she'd probably been in touch with Mrs. Hudson, too).

Puck looked at her and could she was lying. Aside from the fact that she was scarily pale, her eyes looked puffy and red and her hair, pulled back into a ponytail, was looking rather limp.

"Rach," he said softly, "I can tell you're not okay. You can confide in me, you know. You can tell me what you're feeling; I know it can't be easy for you…"

Rachel looked at him, a spark of fire in her eyes. "_You_ think that _you_ know what _I'm_ going through?! How in the world do you figure that?! _Nobody_ knows what I'm going through! Everyone keeps calling and stopping by, trying to make sure I'm okay, when really, I won't be okay until my _boyfriend_ comes home! Do you _know_ what it's like to wonder what's going on with him?! Do you _know_ what it's like to wonder how I'm going to get through this, when I'm a wreck now and I can barely function and it's only been _three_ days?!" She was breathing heavily at the end, but at least he'd gotten a reaction out of her. He had a feeling it was probably the most she'd let herself feel for the past few days.

That said, though, Puck still wasn't sure of what the proper protocol was in this situation. So, foolishly, he just let his mouth do the talking, not bothering to really think about what was coming out before he said it. _Stupid_.

"I may not know _exactly_ what you're going through, Rachel Berry, but what, you think that I'm just going on merrily with my life and I'm not missing Finn, too?! You think I'm not scared of what's going on with him and what's going to happen to him, too?! Well, guess what…you're not the only one in the world who cares about Finn and you're not the only one who's missing him and suffering because of it!" _Stupid, stupid Puck…Just shut up, man, _he told himself.

Rachel looked at him, the spark of fire in her eyes growing into a flame. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but then shut it, a look of defeat in her eyes. A moment later, tears started to collect in the corners of her eyes, sliding down her face one by one at first, but then speeding up, with many falling at once.

"Oh, Rach," Puck said, opening up his arms and enveloping her in them. "I'm sorry," he said, feeling guilty about getting upset with her when all he'd wanted to do was help and see how she was doing. "I know you're hurting and that this is hard for you. It's hard for me, too."

Rachel started to say something, but her words were muffled by his shirt, where her face was currently pressed. She pulled away for a second and said, "I'm sorry, too. I've just been wallowing in my guilt, not really thinking of anyone else. I know it's hard for you, too. You're his best friend, of course it is. I just…" and she trailed off, pressed her tear-filled face against his shirt again.

"I know," Puck soothed, rubbing her back a bit. "I know."

"Thank you, Noah. I guess I kind of needed this," Rachel said, stepping out of his arms, while simultaneously wiping tears off of her cheeks.

"You're welcome," Puck said softly, using his thumb to wipe away one last trace of tear near the corner of her eye. She looked up at him with those shining eyes (the result of her tears), and he felt those feelings which he had so resolutely pushed down start to resurface. _Not __**now**__, Puckerman. Geez, you're trying to comfort her about her boyfriend, your __**best**__ friend. What is wrong with you, man? _But no matter how much he tried to push them down, those darn feelings kept popping back up, reminding him of their existence.

_Great, what do I do now?_ Puck thought, looking down at the emotional girl before him.

A.N. Hi, everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'm a little sad because the story's not getting as many reviews as I'd hoped, but I guess that's just something I have to deal with. For those of you who are reading this, I hope this story is living up to your expectations, or that you're at least enjoying it. If you have any suggestions for how I can make the story better, please let me know! I will definitely take them into account!


	4. Chapter 4

Over the course of the week, Puck visited Rachel four more times. With each visit, Rachel seemed to regain a bit of the light that was so much of a part of her. Mrs. Hudson had even called Puck on Thursday to tell him that she had just seen Rachel and was heartened to see how much better she looked than earlier on in the week.

"Rachel told me that you've been visiting her and helping her, "by giving her a dose of reality," I think were her exact words." Mrs. Hudson had told him. "I know Finn would really appreciate what you're doing; I know _I_ appreciate it. It's hard for me to go on, knowing that Rachel was so depressed. However, seeing her become a bit more of herself has helped make my outlook more positive, if that makes any sense."

Puck had reassured her that it did make sense and that he was just glad that Rachel was doing better. Truth be told, though, he _did_ feel good about helping Rachel. It made him feel good to know that he had some sort of influence in Rachel's life, even though it was just helping her feel better about Finn leaving.

A week and a half after Finn's departure was the first time that _Rachel_ called _Puck_ and asked him to come over. All the previous visits had been his idea, he'd come over and she'd let him in. But this time, _this_ visit was Rachel's idea, and Puck felt a smidgeon of guilt at the happiness he was feeling about that.

"Hi, Noah," Rachel greeted, opening the door when he knocked. She was still a little pale and it looked like she'd lost a few pounds since Finn had left, but otherwise, she looked great. Her hair was straight and smooth, falling down her back in a silky sheet, and she had put on a little bit of makeup, nothing too heavy, but enough to look presentable. Granted, Puck thought she looked fine even without makeup, but it was still nice to see her getting back to her old self.

"Hey, Rachel. How are you?" He greeted her the same way he'd been greeting her for the past week and a half.

"I'm doing better, thanks," she replied, a small smile gracing her features. "Day by day, right?"

"That's what we said," Puck agreed. "Day by day." During his third visit, they'd finally gotten to talking about how to get through this whole ordeal. It was an interestingly awkward experience for Puck because he wasn't used to having such lengthy conversations about feelings and stuff, but it hadn't been as painfully torturous as he'd thought it would be. Not saying that it was his favorite thing to do now, but still…with Rachel, he was able to sit through it.

Rachel came back into the living room with two cans of Sprite, set them down on the coffee table, and plopped herself down on the couch with a sigh.

"It's just, I just," she started and then stopped for a moment. "It's just that some days are so _long_, you know? It's like, I tell myself that I have to take it day by day, but then some days just keep going on and on and on!"

Puck nodded, recognizing that she wanted a response, but wasn't finished speaking yet. "I just remember when Finn used to be here, like, _all the time¸_ and there was always something to do when he was here, you know? Sometimes we'd just sit and talk, sometimes we'd watch a movie, sometimes we'd bake or cook together, and sometimes we'd just spend the day in b-" Rachel stopped and blushed. "Well, you get the point. Now it just seems like my life is so _empty_, like there's nobody around. Well, except _you_, of course. I don't know what I'd do without you, Noah." She smiled at him.

Wow, Puck hadn't realized he could experience so many emotions in such a short span of time. First he just felt sympathetic for the lonely person in front of him, then he felt some bursts of jealousy at all the things that Rachel and Finn did together and all the time they spent together. After that, though, when she added the last couple of lines about him, Puck felt his heart warm again. Those feelings that had started to resurface last week? Yeah, they were completely resurfaced now; no matter how much Puck tried to tell himself that he was just going to get hurt, that this was his _best friend's_ girl, those stubborn feelings refused to drown themselves. Stupid feelings.

The next few weeks passed, and his feelings for Rachel were now not only back in full force, but they seemed to have become _stronger_. One day, Puck decided it was time for them to get out. He and Rachel were always cooped up in her apartment, sitting on the couch or at the table, just talking. Sure, she'd gone back to singing and stuff, but it wasn't the same; her heart wasn't in it like it used to be. Puck's goal was to give her back some of her spirit and love for life, and he was fairly confident that he could accomplish neither when stuck in a small apartment all the time.

Coming up with something to do was a challenge. Puck felt like he couldn't suggest bowling, simply because Finn and Rachel had gone on their first date there…and subsequent dates, as well. He didn't want to suggest paintball or laser tag because they both involved shooting, and he didn't think Rachel was ready for that yet. He was scared it'd remind her of where Finn was and depress her even more. What else was there for them to do? This _was_ Lima, after all, it's not like there was a plethora of things to do or see.

Puck finally happened upon the perfect idea. There was a fair taking place in the town next to Lima, and Puck thought it'd be good to take Rachel there. Yes, it was very public and there'd be a lot of people, so it might be a bit overwhelming, but it's not like there would be so many people there that they knew, so in one way, it'd be kind of a relief. Plus, it'd get them out and be fun…hopefully.

"Okay, Berry, get your things together," he greeted her when she let him in five weeks after Finn left.*

"What?" she said, not following.

"C'mon, we're going out," he said, heading to her kitchen where he saw she had prepared some sandwiches for them for a snack. He opened up a drawer, took out a couple of little Ziploc bags, and put the sandwiches in them. He grabbed some cans of soda from the fridge and placed those in a plastic shopping bag, along with the sandwiches.

"Where? Where are we going?" She asked, bewildered, following him as he put some other snacks he found into the bag and headed back toward the hall.

"We're going to the fair," he said, "So get your shoes on and let's go!"

*Okay, if anyone is questioning the math, being that I said it was a week and half after Finn left, and then said three weeks after that, Puck decided they need to get out, but then said it was 5 weeks after Finn left, the reason that the math may not add up is because I was figuring it took Puck a few days to figure out what they should do. Hope that clears things up if you were questioning that…if not, then you can pretty much ignore this little note because it may just confuse you, rather than clarify anything for you.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'm not so thrilled with this chapter; it seems a bit dry to me, but please let me know what you think! I'm hoping for a little more of a lighthearted feeling in the next chapter, so get excited! :-) I love reviews, so thank you to all of you who have reviewed! Please keep it up!

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	5. Chapter 5

The whole way to the fair, Rachel kept badgering Puck with questions. It was starting to get on his nerves.

"But _why_ are we going to the fair? And _why_ exactly do we have to do this when it's a forty-five minute drive away? And what are we going to _do_ when we get there? Isn't it just a bunch of people showing off their cows and pigs or whatever?"

Puck had never known Rachel to be so clueless about something. Ever since he'd known her, she always seemed to have all the answers, always seemed to know everything. Now, he finds out that that apparently doesn't extend to fairs…Fairs, of all things! How could she not know what a fair is like?!

Finally, after a few more questions on Rachel's part, Puck had had enough. "Berry!" he shouted. "Chill!" Surprisingly, she did, and she sat fairly quietly until they got there, which was only another ten minutes, but it was a nice, if brief, respite from the constant questions. To be honest, at first Puck had been happy that she kept asking tons of questions; it made her seem more like her old self, which is in his book, was a definitely good thing. However, even he had his limit, and she was particularly good at making him reach that limit very quickly. (It was one of the things that he loved about her, but he'd never ever ever tell anyone, especially her, that.)

As they walked to where the fair was from where they had parked, Rachel started gazing around with interest.

"Oh!" Rachel exclaimed. "Is that a Ferris wheel?!" she asked, pointing.

"Yup," Puck replied.

"Can we go on it, Noah?" she asked eagerly, her eyes alight with excitement.

"Sure," he agreed nonchalantly.

When they reached the first few booths set up, Rachel gasped again, her eyes wide. Puck knew she was fascinated because she didn't even _say_ anything, she just looked. As her head swiveled from side to side, trying to absorb everything, Puck started chuckling a bit.

"Rachel, we have time to look around. You don't need to give yourself whiplash just so you can view everything in under a minute. We can wander a bit, if you want."

"I really want to start on the Ferris wheel, though. Can we come back here after the ride?" Rachel asked eagerly.

"No problem. We just have to remember how to find our way back here."

"Oh, that's not a problem; I have an _excellent_ sense of direction," she reassured him.

As they neared the Ferris wheel, Puck was a little surprised to see that there wasn't much of a line. As a matter of fact, they only had to wait around for three minutes before they were able to go on. Rachel and Puck were able to comfortably sit next to each in the seat, lightly chatting as their altitude increased.

It was only when they were close to approaching the top that Puck started to grip the bar tightly. Rachel was oblivious to his discomfort at first, too busy gazing at the view. Soon, however, she noticed.

"Noah, is something wrong?" she asked, concerned. He hadn't _appeared_ hesitant about going on the Ferris wheel before, so she didn't know what could be bothering him now.

"Nothing," he said shortly, but then gave in when she just gave him a questioning look. "Ok, so I don't like being at the top of the Ferris wheel, ok?"

Rachel looked at him, bewildered. "Are you scared of heights? Because you could've told me before and it would've been okay, I mean, I wouldn't have minded so much to just do it alone or not go on at-"

Puck interrupted her. "It's not really heights that bother me," he said, then gave an audible gulp. "It's more the fact that we're on top of this really high monstrosity and there are tons of people below and what if the whole thing fell and we were on top and the whole thing squished all those people down there and-" he inhaled, sharply, then exhaled. Rachel was smirking at him.

"Wow, I don't think I ever heard you ramble before, Noah. It's more my thing," she grinned. "It's kind of cute."

Puck forced himself not to dwell on that last comment of hers and simply to think about other things.

"You know, we're not going to fall…and neither is the ride. They engineer these types of things to prevent that from happening," Rachel told him with a smile. He had a feeling she was still laughing internally at him.

"I know that," Puck grunted, but gave her a small smile. "Sorry for going off about that before."

"It's okay," Rachel reassured him. "It's nice to know that you have faults and fears, too. You always seem like this stoic wall of muscle, never letting emotion or weakness show." Rachel paused for a moment before continuing. "I feel like I know you better now, just knowing this little detail about you," she commented thoughtfully.

Puck felt that warming feeling he felt so often with Rachel. Seriously? Spending time with Rachel was like warming yourself by the fire after coming in from the cold; it melted you, and took away any outer layer of ice you might have developed.

After they got off the ride, they headed toward some booths. When Rachel saw the cotton candy being made, her eyes got wide.

"Do people really eat that stuff?" she questioned.

"Sure, don't you?"

"Dad and Daddy never let me eat it when I was younger. They always said it was just pure sugar. Then, when I got older and saw it at the store or wherever, it was just one of those things that I never had because I could hear my fathers' voices in my head, telling me it was bad for me," Rachel told him honestly.

"Why am I not surprised?" Puck asked, looking up at the sky as if the answer would appear there. "C'mon, Berry, I'm going to educate you about the wonders of cotton candy."

Rachel laughed. "Really, Noah? The _wonders_ of cotton candy? Isn't it just sugar? What could be so great about sugar?"

Puck took out a bill from his wallet and handed it to the person selling the cotton candy. He took the cone with the spun sugar and handed it to Rachel. "Here, live a little."

Rachel looked at him skeptically, then took a little piece and put it in her mouth. Her eyes got wide again. "Who knew sugar could be so awesome?!"

Puck laughed and watched Rachel eat the treat. She offered him some, but he declined. He was satisfied with just gazing at Rachel while she ate. She kept popping a little piece in her mouth, then giving a little smile, as if it was a surprise all over again how good it tasted. After she had finished it all, she went and threw out the cone in the garbage.

It was only when she came back from throwing it out that he noticed she had a little piece of cotton candy stuck to the corner of her mouth. Now, Puck knew that if this had been basically any movie out there, he'd gently wipe the cotton candy off of her face, they'd gaze into each other's eyes, they'd fall in love, and then they'd kiss. Puck was pretty sure he already had one of those things down (figure it out), but he knew this wasn't a clichéd movie, so it wasn't happening.

"You have some…" Puck said instead, motioning to the corner of his mouth. Rachel realized what he was saying and wiped off the corner of her mouth, too, successfully ridding herself of the sugar.

"Thanks," she said, laughing at herself.

"Sure. Where do you want to go now?" Puck asked.

"Could we go see if they have any game booths where we can win prizes?" Rachel asked with wide eyes, as if maybe it was too much to ask and life couldn't get any better than a Ferris wheel and cotton candy.

"I saw some this way," Puck said, pointing, and led them to an area filled with little game booths. "So, what's your talent? Throwing balls into cups? Tossing rings around bottles?"

"Er, well, I don't know." Rachel seemed unsure. "Could you maybe go first and I'll just watch? I'll pay for you to do it, if you want."

"Don't worry about that; I've got it," Puck said and handed the person running the booth some money and received three rings to toss.

Puck threw the first ring and it fell around a bottle somewhere in the middle of the table. Rachel cheered. _You're the __**man**__, Puckerman. C'mon, show her what you've got_, he thought, and tossed the 2nd ring, but it missed.

"Awww," Rachel said. She was the most vocal audience Puck had ever had. Before tossing the last ring, Puck concentrated intently on the bottle at which he was aiming. He narrowed his eyes, furrowed his brow, and then, feeling slightly stupid for getting so into a dinky game, he finally threw the ring, which landed perfectly around the neck of his target bottle. Rachel cheered again, making Puck feel like a giant…a tossing-rings-around-bottle giant. _I really need to get out more_, Puck thought to himself before smiling at Rachel as he was asked which prize he'd like.

"Your choice, Rach," Puck told her. Her eyes lit up again.

"Really, Noah?! Wow…thanks! Um…" Rachel said as her eyes flitted over the array of prizes. Her eyes lit up again (really, her eyes today were like those Christmas lights that blink on and off) and she pointed to something hanging off of a pole in the booth. "I want that," she said.

Puck looked where she was pointing and started to laugh. "Really, Berry? You want a stuffed _strawberry_?! Wow, you want a stalk of corn to go along with that, to match how corny you are?"

"I like it," she said indignantly to him, punching him in the arm. Or, what she probably called punching; to Puck it felt more like a light tap.

"Whatever; it's your choice," he said, still laughing. "The stuffed strawberry," he said to the person in the booth, pointing his chin in the direction of the toy. The dude got it down for him and he handed it to Rachel. "Thanks," he said to the guy, then to Rachel he said, "C'mon, Rach, now that we've got our necessary cliché of a stuffed prize, let's move on."

"Okay," Rachel said happily, hugging the stuffed strawberry. A stuffed strawberry…_honestly! Who thought of these things?_ Puck wondered. It even had a little shag of green on the top with a stem peeking out, and a smiley face toward the top. _Jeez, what I do for this girl. _Puck ignored the voice in him that said, _She didn't force you into anything, Puckerman, so don't pretend as if you didn't __**want**__ to do this for her. You'd do __**anything**__ to make her happy and make her smile. _He pushed that voice deep, deep down. Stupid voices.

A.N. Hope you enjoyed! Please review…it makes me so happy when you do! (I did not mean to rhyme those)


	6. Chapter 6

A.N. Alright, everyone, here's the newest chapter. I gotta say, I'm a little down because I thought I'd get more reviews, but I guess people are kind of busy. Or maybe my story just doesn't attract the type of people who review all the time. Oh, well. But if you have time, please review- I love reviews and love to get feedback, even if it isn't ALL positive! Let me know what you think! And if you have an idea about where the story should go, please share, and I will read it and see if it fits into what I already have planned. Enjoy!

Going to the fair ended up being one of the first of many outings for Puck and Rachel. It wasn't always so easy finding things for them to do, but somehow they managed. Yes, they still spent a lot of time hanging out in Rachel's apartment, but at least that wasn't the _only_ place they hung out.

They were gradually becoming closer and closer and it seemed to benefit both of them. Puck _knew_ it benefitted him, since he ended up talking about things that he'd never really voiced to anyone before, but for some reason, he told Rachel and it made him feel loads better. Puck couldn't say for _sure_ that the relationship benefitted Rachel, but there was no denying that she was doing fifty times better now, three and a half months after Finn left, than she had been when Finn had just departed.

As for Puck's feelings, well, they were definitely there, becoming stronger every day it seemed, but he worked _very_ hard to keep them hidden. He knew it wasn't the time to let them out, didn't know if it'd _ever_ be the time. Not letting his real feelings for Rachel show was probably the most difficult and most strenuous thing he'd ever done, but he knew it was necessary.

One week, everything came to a head. It had been a weird start to the week, and everything just kept on getting stranger as the week went on.

Puck walked into Rachel's one day, calling out her name. He had spent so much time there recently that she just gave him a key, saying it would be a lot simpler for him to keep letting himself in rather than her having to come to the door each time.

"Rach?" he called out as he slung his jacket over the couch. "You here?"

There was silence, so he called her name again. "Rach? Berry?"

All of a sudden he heard a thump, and then Rachel saying, "Noah?"

"Yeah, hey, I'm here. Everything okay?" he called back to her

There was another noise and then Rachel said, "Yeah, everything's good. I'll be right there!"

Puck made himself comfortable on the couch, then got up a second later, intent on fixing some coffee for Rachel and himself. He had gotten Rachel hooked on coffee during their time spent together. It was only after a musical marathon had them up all night, even though they had work the next morning, that Rachel finally caved and tried coffee. At first, she put tons of sugar in hers, but now she was getting accustomed enough to it that she had three teaspoons of sugar and some milk in hers. Puck fixed it the way she liked it and brought the mugs out to the coffee table.

Rachel came out a minute later, looking, well, not so put together. Puck couldn't remember seeing her look like this since the week that Finn left. What was going on?

"You okay, Rachel? You look, uh, a little worse for wear?" Puck asked hesitantly.

"Well, thanks a lot, Noah. How kind of you," she retorted, taking a sip of her coffee, then sighing in pleasure and leaning back against the couch. Her pale blue robe that was tied around her slipped up a little, exposing even more of her legs to him. Puck felt his body react.

"You just don't look like you usually do," Puck muttered, trying to control himself while simultaneously questioning Rachel in a way that wouldn't offend her.

"Yeah, well how do I normally look, huh?" Apparently, his attempt at not offending her didn't work so well. Oh, no. Rachel was raising her voice now. "Do I normally look like I'm totally fine, like nothing in the world is wrong? Do I look all made up and put together?"

_Is there a right answer to this question?_ Puck wondered, but after seeing Rachel's glare, he realized he had to answer. "Well, lately, yeah," he said.

"Well, you know what?! I've been doing some thinking and I realized, what am I getting all made up for? It's not like I have a boyfriend who's around who I'm trying to impress or look nice for! Why should I waste time on how I look when I don't have anyone who cares?!" Rachel yelled, tears peaking out of the corner of her eyes.

"Whoa, Rach, ease up there. What happened?" Puck asked gently, taking her into his arms. She was stiff at first, which was weird in itself, since usually she relaxed when they hugged, but then a few seconds later, he could feel the tension start to leave her body.

"Nothing," she muttered against his chest. "I'm sorry for going all diva-crazy on you. You don't deserve that. You've been really amazing throughout everything and you've just been there for me and I'm wrecking it and I'm sorry."

"Berry," he said, "It's okay. Relax. You know you're not half-bad to spend time with."

She snorted, "Gee, thanks."

He grinned, happy that things seemed to be getting back to normal. He didn't know what had bothered her before, but she obviously didn't want to get into it, so he wasn't going to pry. For now.

"You wanna watch a movie?" he asked. "First I thought, it's a little early for a movie, but then I was like, it's never too early for a movie!"

Rachel laughed at him. "So, what do you say?" he asked.

"Alright," she replied. "I'll go make some popcorn…even though, as far as nutritious meals go, popcorn is far from the top." Ah, now there was the Rachel he was used to. "What're we watching?" she called from her kitchen.

(A.N. I hope that separating line works…I tried it on another story and it messed up the formatting…So if it messes up the formatting of this chapter, too, I'll try to repost without it, but I can't promise anything)

A couple of days later, Rachel was again a little snappy when he arrived, but she loosened up. He didn't know what was going on with her, but he hoped it was just the change in weather or something. He really didn't want to pry, but he couldn't help wondering what was making her change her mood so much.

On Friday, he decided it was time for them to get out again. He figured it'd been enough time since Finn left that he could take her bowling. When he suggested it to Rachel, she got a funny look on her face for a moment, but then quickly erased it, telling him that sounded good.

The bowling alley wasn't packed, but it also wasn't empty. Puck liked it like that because it meant that they could be a few lanes away from other bowlers, but they didn't feel like they were in the alley alone.

When Puck saw the shoes Rachel got, he started laughing.

"What?!" Rachel demanded, her hands on her hips.

"It's just, your feet are so small! You're lucky the rest of you is so tiny or else you'd fall over!" He said, still laughing.

"Oh, thanks," Rachel said grumpily, her arms now folded across her chest.

"Aw, c'mon, Rach, you know I'm joking…well, you are tiny, but-" he stopped, jerking away laughing as Rachel swatted at him with her shoe. "Hey!"

"Hey, yourself," she responded, a bit of a smirk on her face. But then a little frown appeared, "And I'm NOT so small, so there, Noah Puckerman!"

"So there, Rachel? _So there?_ What are you, six?" Puck teased, knowing he was treading on thin ice. He simply couldn't resist.

"No, I am twenty years old, as you well know, Noah. And I can say "so there" as much as I want, since I am a mature, sophisticated adult! _So there!_"

Puck snickered, but covered it with his hand. "Ok, my mature sophisticated friend, I give up. Let's just bowl."

Rachel grinned victoriously at him and stalked over to their lane, her shoes in hand. Puck followed, shaking his head with a grin on his face. _Man, when I enjoy arguing with a girl, but let her win, I know I'm doomed. I am so whipped. _

"What's taking you so long, Noah? You and your big feet can't keep up with me and my tiny ones, is that it?" Rachel grinned from their lane.

"Sure, Berry, that's it. Keep telling yourself that," he replied. At this point, he was standing next to her, so he grabbed a ball, walked toward the lane, and let the ball roll. _Strike_, he thought, and when all the pins were knocked down, he thought, _Yes! I am still the man, no matter how whipped I am. _

"Nice job, Noah," Rachel said, getting up from her seat.

"Do you need help? Do you need me to show you how it's done?" Puck asked, goading her. What can he say? He was resisting temptation in so many other ways, he figured he didn't need to waste his will power on resisting temptation with teasing her.

"Oh, I know how it's done," Rachel replied confidently. He laughed again as she smirked at him as she walked up.

They spent the next hour like that, teasing each other, each trying to beat the other, and have the last word. In the end, Rachel won, but when he didn't make up fifteen excuses about why it wasn't fair or she cheated, Rachel gave him a searching look.

"What?" he asked her, seeing the look.

"Nothing," she muttered, all traces of teasing and fun gone from her countenance. "Let's just go. Can you drop me off?"

"Yeah, no problem," he said, bewildered. What in the world was going on with this girl?

They drove back to Rachel's apartment in silence, the only noise coming from the radio. When he stopped in front of Rachel's building, he turned off the car, assuming he'd get out and go in for a while. Rachel, however, vaulted out of his car like her seat was on fire, and hurried up the walk to her door, fumbling to let herself in. She succeeded just as Puck walked up behind her.

"Oh, Noah," she said, surprise registering on her face as she noticed Puck's presence.

"Yeah…" he said, trying to get her to say more.

"I didn't think you'd be joining me," she said, stepping into her apartment.

First Puck thought that he'd just leave, seeing as she obviously wasn't particularly thrilled about him being there. But on second thought, he really wanted to know what was up with her and he decided he'd ignored it enough; he was going to confront her.

"Rachel! What is going on with you?" he asked, searching her eyes for some sign. "You've been practically bipolar all week! What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Rachel tried to say, but Puck closed the door, grabbed Rachel's arm and sat them down on the couch.

"It's not nothing!" he raised his voice. "You've been acting so strange all week! I think I deserve to know what's going on!" He paused. "Is it Finn?"

"No. Yes. I don't know!" Rachel started to raise her voice, too. "I just…I just…"

"You just WHAT?!" Puck hated it that Rachel started stammering just when she was starting to tell him what was going on.

"I've just been thinking about Finn. And about you. And the fact that you're always here now, while Finn's away. And sometimes I catch you looking at me like, well," and her voice softened a lot as she said the next sentence, "you look at me like Finn looked at me."

Puck was flabbergasted. His mouth had even dropped open a bit. How had Rachel…But he…He thought he'd been so smooth, hiding his feelings…How had Rachel caught onto that?

"Listen, Rach," he started, placing a hand on hers.

"No!" Rachel shouted, twisting away from him. "No! You're not supposed to look at me like that! Only Finn is! And just because Finn isn't here doesn't give you the right to look at me like that, to confuse me those deep looks! Just stop, stop, STOP!" Tears were coming down her cheeks now.

All the emotions that he thought he'd been hiding so well now sprung forth like a jack in the box, just waiting to come out. "But _I_ wanted you FIRST!" Puck exploded.

The look on Rachel's face was priceless.

A.N. Okay, you asked for longer chapters. Well, this one's longer. I hope you enjoyed! Please please review!


	7. Chapter 7

A.N. Alright, everyone, I don't know if it's the fact that you people found my not-at-all-subtle pleading for reviews pathetically sad, so you reviewed out of mercy…or if you liked the chapter, so you reviewed…or if you just hadn't had a chance to review until then, but whatever the reason, THANKS for the reviews! They made me so happy! I hope this chapter is as good as the last or better! Ok, this chapter is SIGNIFICANTLY shorter than the last one…I realize that. I just don't have so much time to write this one. I hope to have a MUCH longer one at some time tomorrow, if that's any comfort. I just wanted to get this one out, to tide you over for that much longer. Oh, and Puck really shows his idiotic, yet vulnerable, side in this chapter. You'll see. If you've already read this chapter cuz I posted it a few hours ago, you don't have to read it again. I just changed one word (the end was supposed to read "you and Finn" not "you and me", as one observant reviewer pointed out)

The look on Rachel's face was priceless. Puck didn't think he'd ever seen so many emotions cross a person's face before. First and foremost was confusion; after confusion, some hesitancy flitted across her features. Rachel looked as if she wasn't sure if Puck was going crazy or not. _I'm not going crazy, _Puck mentally told her, _I DID want you first. _After hesitancy, confusion came back to visit, followed by a bit of, dare he say it? Humor. A small smile flashed across Rachel's face, gone before Puck could even comprehend what it meant. And the confusion was back, once again! Then, Rachel looked thoughtful for a few moments before, you guessed it, the confusion made an appearance again. Puck's brain hurt from trying to interpret all of Rachel's expressions; he didn't know how she could handle feeling all those emotions!

Puck wasn't sure if he should start explaining himself. On one hand, it seemed like a good idea, being as he just, well, exploded at her, but on the other hand, he really wanted to see what she responded with before he started talking. This internal debate was interrupted by Rachel.

"What's that even mean, "you wanted me first"?" Rachel asked, looking at him.

_Better start talking, Puckerman. And make it good. _

"That day at school when Finn asked you out, _I_ was going to ask you out! I had come early to school so that I could prepare myself and catch you before class, but Brittany stopped me to ask me what she should get for Mike's birthday. I decided to help her out a bit by giving her some suggestions, but while I was doing that, _Finn_ got to you first and asked you out! Talk about no good deed goes unpunished," Puck finished bitterly.

Rachel gaped at him, wordlessly.

"If I hadn't let Brittany stop me, _I _could be the one with you! It's not fair!" Puck was resorting to childish exclamations, apparently. "All these years, I've been watching you guys be all happy together and I just stand at the sidelines, going from girl to the next. I didn't hang out with you guys as much as I used to or wanted to because I couldn't stand to see you both all lovey-dovey together; it made me sick! And you know why it made me sick, Rachel, huh? You know why? Because I kept on thinking how that _should've_ been ME!" Puck realized he should stop, that he was making a fool out of himself, but he just couldn't. Once he started, once he began letting out his emotions about the matter, he couldn't stop; he was out of control.

"And now I've been spending all this time with you, and we have such a great time together, Rachel, you and I. We have fun, we laugh, we tease each other, we even have serious conversations about emotions and stuff. And sometimes when we sit there, my arm on the back of the couch, and you lean back on it, I can't help but think how _glad_ I am that Finn left! I can't help but think how this time just shows how perfect _we_ are together. Don't you see it, Rachel? It's _us_ that belong together, not you and Finn!" Puck stopped, breathing heavily, eyes searching Rachel's.

He realized he really couldn't sound like more of a douche. The expression on Rachel's face confirmed that fact; she looked horrified.

A.N. I know, this is the second chapter in a row where I ended with Rachel's expression. Sorry about that. I'll try to rectify that with the next one, which I hope will be up sometime tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed! Please review, despite how short this chapter was! Let me know your reactions! What'd you think of Puck? In character or not?


	8. Chapter 8

Rachel Berry could only be silent for so long. There was at least a minute of silence in between his latest outburst and when Rachel started talking, and that minute provided a window of opportunity for many thoughts to run through Puck's mind, most of them along the lines of, _You stupid, stupid boy. What were you thinking? What's wrong with you? There is NO way that this is going to turn out well. When Rachel gets her voice back, boy are you going to be in for it!_

It didn't take long for Rachel to start voicing her own thoughts on the manner, and unfortunately for Puck, _his_ thoughts had been fairly correct.

"What kind of person _are_ you, Noah Puckerman?!" Rachel's voice and expression matched: they were both filled with contempt. "What kind of _best friend_ is _glad_ that their friend went away to _war_, where they could potentially be killed?! How do you _live_ with yourself?!" Rachel's eyes when she looked at him….if looks could kill… "Here I am, missing my _boyfriend_, but being comforted by his _best friend_, thinking that the said "friend" was here to _help_ me, to _comfort_ me, because _he_, of all people, knew what I was going through, _he_ could sympathize with my plight! I thought it was so _noble_ of you, so _amazing_ that you would devote so much of your time to helping me acclimate to the situation, help me get back to normal…and now I find out that you were doing this all because of some _ulterior motive_?!! _Who_ are you?!"

Each one of Rachel's words, delivered in such scathing tones, was like used-to-be-sharp-but-now-dull knife. If the knife were still sharp, at least it would've made it a clean cut…but the dullness of the knife made it throb and ache more. Puck wasn't sure of how much of this he could stand. Yet, he knew he had to stand it, he knew he had to listen to her, as much for himself as for her.

Puck took another glance at Rachel, the scathing look in her eyes slowly thawing into wounded puppy. That look hurt him in another way that the scathing one had…at least the scathing one just affected him; this wounded look was _his_ effect on _her_.

Puck took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts. He had to be very very careful with what he said now; this could make or break a lot of things in his life, very _very_ important things.

"Rachel." He started, then stopped, inhaling again. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry. That outburst before, it was, well, I'd like to say it wasn't me, but it _was_ me. It's just, I was," _Darn!_ He stopped again and collected his thoughts. "It was out of line for me to say a lot of the things I said. And I'm sorry. But what you just said to me, those weren't _all_ fair accusations. I started coming and visiting you (_man, I sound like I'm talking about visiting an old-age home!)_…I started hanging out with you because _Finn_ asked me to. He told me that I should look out for you, since he knew it'd be hard for you, maybe even harder than for his mother. After the first few times, though, when some of the awkwardness went away, I just started coming because of me. And no, it wasn't an "ulterior motive," as you said, because that makes it sound sinister and it really wasn't like that. I came because I liked hanging out with you, I liked seeing you smile, being the one to make you laugh. I liked who I was when I hung around you; it was like you saw me as this person who could _do_ stuff, you know? You saw me as someone who did stuff for other people, and _no_ other girl has _ever_ seen me that way."

Puck paused for another moment to gauge Rachel's reaction. When he saw that she was still sitting stiffly, he decided he'd better continue.

"What I said a few minutes ago, Rachel, it was a heat of the moment thing, you know? I'm not using that as an excuse or anything," he quickly backtracked when he saw her frozen glare, "but I just wanted to tell you that. It's not that I'm glad that Finn went to _war_, I'm just glad that I got to spend time with you getting to know you. He could've gone to Missouri for all I care and I'd still feel the same way!" Rachel raised her eyebrows at him slightly. "Do you know what it's been like for me, Rachel? For _years_ I've watched you and Finn together, and no matter how hard I tried, there was always a little voice in the back of my head that would say, "That could've been you, you know." I've tried _so hard_ to mute that voice, to get rid of the feelings, but they _won't go away!_ I don't know what to do anymore, Rachel! Spending all this time with you has just made those feelings stronger and that voice louder and I _don't know what to do!_ I just keep thinking…" he trailed off when he saw Rachel's stare.

"Stop thinking," Rachel told him shortly.

"Wha-" Puck started, but Rachel interrupted him again.

"Stop thinking," she said. "If all thinking is going to do is get you to wonder about what could've been, then just. Stop. Thinking," she stated simply. "These feelings you have are _not_ okay. And if spending time together is encouraging them, is making them grow, then the solution is simple, isn't it?" Her eyes glittered with tears, Puck wasn't exactly sure of the cause of the tears; there were so many possibilities. He hoped she wasn't going to say what he thought she was. "We just can't spend any more time together."

And there it was.

"Rachel-" Puck tried to reason, but Rachel cut him off _again_.

"I think you should leave, Noah." She walked stiffly over to the door, opened it, and held it open for him, gesturing for him to leave.

"Rach-" he started, but this time, _he_ interrupted himself. _This is not the time, Puckerman_, he thought, and grabbed his coat off of the couch and walked to the door.

Before he walked away, he turned around once more, as Rachel was closing was the door. "Bye, Rach," he said.

She closed the door. As Puck walked away, the sound of her sobs accompanied him.

- - - -

The next few days were, to put it lightly, horrible. Puck could barely concentrate while doing _anything._ Not in his college classes, not in his work (he still cleaned pools, raked lawns, shoveled sidewalks, basically any landscaping work that was required in any season), and especially not when he was home. Most of the time, he'd find himself replaying various scenes with Rachel over and over in his mind, like some kind of movie reel. Usually he'd watch "Good Ol' Times with Rachel and Noah," but sometimes, a few scenes out of "Where Puck is an Idiot and Everything Goes Downhill (And We Mean DOWNHILL) From There" would sneak in, disrupting any peaceful reprieve Puck might be having. To put it simply, life sucked.

It was _another_ call from Mrs. Hudson that jolted Puck out of his funk.

"Noah, I don't know if you've noticed lately, but Rachel seems to have gone back into her shell. Now I know she's entitled to her feelings and all, but this just seems unhealthy. Do you think you'd be able to go and check on her?"

Ah, kindhearted Mrs. Hudson. "I'm, uh, kinda busy, uh, these days, Mrs. Hudson. I, uh, don't know if I'll be able to, uh, make it over there anytime soon. Sorry," Puck tried, but as he suspected, Mrs. Hudson didn't exactly leave it at that.

"Oh, I'm sure you're busy, Noah, but I just think that Rachel would _really_ perk up if she had a visit from you."

_I really don't think so. _"I don't know…" Puck tried again, but Mrs. Hudson was super stubborn.

"Please, Noah, do it for me, do it for _Finn_. I'd just feel so much better if I knew you were there with her."

_Stinkin' conscience._ "Sure," Puck sighed. "I'll go over there in a little while, Mrs. Hudson."

"Thank you so much, Noah. I don't know _what_ we'd do without you! Good bye!"

"Bye," Puck muttered. Now he was stuck with the same question he was stuck with all those months ago when Finn had left: _What do I do now?_

- - -

Puck made his way to Rachel's door, fingering the key in his pocket, but knowing he probably shouldn't be using it today. He knocked hesitantly on the door, but when that received no response, he knocked more firmly and louder.

A few moments later, Rachel answered the door. Puck didn't really know what he was expecting her to look like, but it wasn't like _this_. Rachel was dressed up as if she were going out! She had a short black dress on, her makeup was done, and her hair was straight and smooth.

"Noah," she said in surprise. She didn't even have time to add any undertones when she said his name she was so shocked. Ah, but when at first you don't succeed, try again, right? "Noah," she stated again, and Puck detected some displeasure in her voice.

"Hi, Rach?" he smiled weakly. "Did I interrupt you? Are you going somewhere?"

"No," she answered shortly, as if she dressed and looked like this all the time.

"Can I come in? Please?" he asked, not sure of what the response would be, but hoping for a positive one. What he got was another surprise.

"Yeah," she sighed, resigned, looking as if she knew this was coming. Being as _Puck_ wasn't even sure of what was coming, he didn't really know what to make of that sigh.

Puck thought maybe he should be the first one to start to talk, but he wasn't exactly sure of what to say. He hadn't thought this through all the way before coming here, possibly because he knew he'd chicken out if he did that and Puck _never _chickened out. He was a _stud_, since when did studs chicken out? That little voice in the back of his mind started whispering _Since when do studs end up practically confessing their love to their best friend's singing girlfriend in the most roundabout way possible?_ Puck was getting REALLY good at ignoring that voice. However, Puck's fears about what to say were for naught because Rachel initiated the conversation.

"I knew this would happen eventually, I just didn't realize how soon. I guess I was hoping for more time," and Rachel sighed again. Puck _still_ didn't know _what_ she thought would happen eventually. Maybe him coming and seeing how she was doing? But then why did she look like that was a burden?

"I just came to check on you," Puck muttered. "I could leave if now's a bad time," he said, looking down.

Rachel did that sighing thing again. "No, I might as well get this over with. Sit down, Noah."

_What_ was she going to get over with? Why did he feel so confused?

"Noah, I have to apologize to you for my behavior the other day." That was so _not_ what he had been expecting. "You acknowledged right away how you were out of line, and you apologized. I needed a bit more time than that to be able to do the same thing." _WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS SHE GOING ON ABOUT?! _Puck was getting more confused by the second. Luckily, Rachel kept on talking, so maybe he wouldn't have to wait so much longer.

"When I confronted you about your feelings or, more accurately, the looks you kept giving me, I wasn't _completely_ sure that I had been reading the situation correctly. I kept telling myself that I was lacking too much sleep, that I couldn't possibly be right. There was no way that you, "studly Noah Puckerman" would want me or have feelings for me. But then, after catching your stares a bunch of times, I couldn't hold it in any longer, so I just blurted it out when you kept pestering me about what was bothering me. Then, when I found out that you _did _have feelings for me, and not only did you have them now, you'd had them for _years, _I was totally floored. It completely shocked me. So much so that I reacted, well, very badly. Then, when you reacted so emotionally, I reacted even _worse_ to that. Even after you apologized and explained yourself, I just couldn't handle it. I couldn't handle all this new knowledge, all these new feelings."

Puck, who'd been looking down at the floor for most of Rachel's speech, looked up so quickly at the last three words she'd uttered, he heard his neck crack. "New fe-" he started to ask, but one look from Rachel shut him up. _Not yet_, her look seemed to say.

"You see, you weren't the only one experiencing strong feelings, Noah." Puck's mouth literally dropped open at this confession of Rachel's. "When Finn left, I was despondent, I was devastated. I felt all alone, as if there was nobody there for me in the world. Yeah, I have my fathers and friends, but none of them _got me_ like Finn did. I've lived away from home for a while now, so my fathers don't know everything about my life anymore. I don't see my friends as often as I did in high school, so they don't know so much about me now either. But Finn, _Finn_ was there for me through it all, he _knew_ what was my life was like, he _knew_ me now, too. So when he went away, I felt like there was nobody left for me," Rachel stopped for a few seconds, looking somewhere over Puck's shoulder. When she didn't continue, he looked in the direction that she was gazing and saw a picture of a beaming Rachel and Finn up on the wall.

Rachel snapped her gaze back to Puck's and continued. "Then, when you started coming and visiting," (Puck couldn't help but thinking, _hey, she also makes it sound like an old age home!_ Then, _Stupid, Puck, pay attention!_) "I started to feel like maybe there _was_ someone there for me, even with Finn gone. When we really started hanging out, doing all sorts of things together, going places, watching movies, I started to really care for you, not just as Finn's best friend, but as _my_ best friend. I found myself missing Finn less, and sometimes, when I'd be doing something really fun with you, I'd go _hours_ without thinking of him.

"I started analyzing what that meant," Rachel went on, and Puck snorted because that was _so_ Rachel, to analyze her own actions. "and I realized that my feelings for you weren't completely platonic," and at this point, her voice got significantly lower, "but slowly, I was starting to have _other_ feelings for you, too."

A.N. Wow, this was a long chapter! I hope you liked it! It was a very speech-filled chapter, so I hope that didn't bore you too much and that what they were saying kept you interested. Also, another point I wanted to mention is that in case you haven't noticed, I'm really not into swearing. Therefore, if you're expecting Puck to swear more or whatever, I'm sorry. It's just not me, and you won't find it in any of my stories. If that doesn't bother you, then keep on reading! But if it does, for some reason, bother you, then there are plenty of stories out there which do include swearing.

Thank you for all of the reviews, people! Please keep them coming! Next chapter, you'll see at least one more familiar character make an appearance, I believe. We'll see where the characters take me, though! :-)


	9. Chapter 9

A.N. Hi, everyone! Sorry it's been so long since I've written! Here's the update! I think you'll enjoy it…I don't think I've spoken about Puck's sister yet in this story or named her…so I did this chapter. If I did name her in a previous chapter, then, well, I'm sorry! Just let me know and I'll try to fix it and be consistent!

Puck drove with his head in the clouds. He couldn't _believe_ what had just happened. He just needed to wrap his head around matters, and then he'd be better…he hoped. He walked into his house, dumping his keys on a table near the door.

"Hello?" he called, walking towards the kitchen.

"Hey," a voice answered from somewhere close by.

He walked into the kitchen to find his sister's babysitter there.

"'Sup, Quinn?" he asked as a greeting, opening up the fridge and sticking his head inside, scouting out some food.

"Nothing much by _me_," she said. "But what's up with you?"

After years of watching his sister and being around the Puckermans, Quinn could read Puck like a book. It also helped that she was married to a guy who wasn't the biggest talker in the world. Artie Abrams wasn't shy, but he wasn't a blabbermouth either…and Quinn had learned how to interpret body language from _everyone_, due to her interaction with Puck's family and her own husband.

"What do you mean?" Puck looked at Quinn innocently. He knew she wouldn't give up or back down until she got to the heart of the matter, but pretending to be dumb gave his a few more seconds to figure out exactly how he would word what happened with Rachel.

"_Puck_," Quinn admonished, "Stop playing dumb and just tell me what happened."

"Hey, where's Abby? Shouldn't she be here, somewhere? Abby! C'mon, kid, I stopped by to say hi!" Puck tried to give himself more time by using his sister as a distraction, but to no avail.

"Abby's at a friend's house. She should be in 25 minutes or so. That should give you just enough time to tell me what's going on. So spill." Quinn was using her no-nonsense voice that Puck knew better than to try to deflect.

Puck inhaled deeply and then let out his breath slowly. "Alright," he said, and Quinn looked at him with a self-satisfied smirk on her face. "I was at Rachel's for the past few hours, working some stuff out."

"Stuff like….your feelings for her?" Quinn asked, eyes sparkling.

"Yeah. And, as it turns out, _her_ feelings for _me_," and now it was Puck's turn for his eyes to sparkle. He still couldn't believe the recent events.

"_Her_ feelings for _you_?!" Quinn exclaimed. "Man, this is better than watching the afternoon soaps!"

"Har, har. Anyway, I went over there because, well, as you know, we had this huge fight recently, and things were really awkward."

"A fight about…?" Quinn prompted.

"About my feelings for her, yes," Puck sighed. "She confronted me about them and about the way I'd look at her and then everything kind of came out in a rush and I said some things that were really out of line. She got really pissed off at me and we didn't talk for a while. But then, Finn's mom called me and asked me to go check on Rachel because she was being weird again, so I figured now was as good a time as any to apologize. Except that instead of Rachel accepting my apology hesitantly and then kicking me out of her apartment for a few more days, she confessed that the reason she exploded at me when I told her my feelings was that she was starting to have feelings for me, too." Puck let out a huge breath.

Quinn stared at him as if he had grown a moustache. "Wow," she breathed.

"Yeah," he said. He was slowly coming to grips with everything.

"Is that it?" Quinn asked. "Then what happened?"

"_I started analyzing what that meant," Rachel went on, and Puck snorted because that was __so__ Rachel, to analyze her own actions. "and I realized that my feelings for you weren't completely platonic," and at this point, her voice got significantly lower, "but slowly, I was starting to have __other__ feelings for you, too."_

_Puck's jaw dropped. Literally. Like, he was seriously standing there, looking at Rachel with his mouth open. He didn't know what to say. The emotions coursing through him were overwhelming to say the least. _

"_Wh-" Puck shook his head, trying to clear it, and started again. "What kinds of feelings? What're you saying, Rachel?"_

"_I'm saying," Rachel said slowly, "that I feel for you kind of like you feel for me. I'm saying that…" she trailed off. _

"_What?" Puck asked urgently, then regretted it. He didn't want to push her, even though he REALLY wanted to know. "What?" he asked again, more gently. _

"_I don't even know!" she shouted. "I don't even know what I'm saying! All I know is that I have a boyfriend, someone who I love and who loves me and right now, he's not here and you ARE here and I feel a connection to you that I thought I only feel with Finn and I don't know what to do with it! All I know is that I'm standing here, and you're just looking at me like that, and it's been so long since I've had someone to…" And Rachel stopped, just staring at Puck._

"_Since you've had someone to…" Puck prodded._

_Rachel didn't say anything. She simply stared at him. Just when he was going to ask her if she was alright, she was a flurry of movement and she flung herself at him. Before he even had a chance to question what she was doing, her lips were on his._

_Rachel kissed him and it felt __**amazing**__. He was still for a second, trying to process it, but once he did, he couldn't help but kiss her back. As their lips moved over one another's, heat spread through Puck's body. It felt so right. He and Rachel kissing, it was right. __**This**__ what he should've been doing for the past years, kissing Rachel. If he hadn't let Brittany stop him in high school that fateful day, __**this**__ is what his life would've been like, __**should've**__ been like. One of Puck's hands was entangled in Rachel's hair while the other was caressing her arm. He couldn't help but think that this was where they belonged, in each other's arms, embracing and kissing. This is what should've happened, if only he hadn't been detained and Finn gotten to her first. _

_Finn._

_Oh, darn._

_Puck knew he had to pull away, but it was so darn hard. He deepened the kiss for a few seconds before somehow summoning up the willpower to force himself to pull away from Rachel's addictive mouth. _

_It Rachel a second for her gaze to clear, but once it did, oh, gosh. _

"_Rach," Puck said, starting to caress her arm again. _

"_No," she whimpered. "That shouldn't have happened. I shouldn't have done that. __**We**__ shouldn't have done that. What kind of person am I? What, I don't hear from my boyfriend for a few weeks and now I just go and hop into bed with his best friend?! Who does that?!"_

"_Rachel," Puck said firmly, gaining her attention. "You're an AMAZING person. Never doubt that. We didn't hop into bed; we just kissed." An awesome kiss, Puck couldn't help but thinking, but he didn't voice his thoughts out loud. "And why didn't you tell me that you haven't heard from Finn for a while?"_

_It really explained a lot, now that he thought about it. It explained why Rachel had been so on edge for a while. He knew that Finn had always made sure to find some way to get in touch with Rachel every week and a half; occasionally, it was every two weeks, but he generally found some way to do it more often than that. If Rachel hadn't heard from Finn, he could just imagine all the thoughts that must be going through her mind. _

_Puck pulled Rachel into his arms. At first she resisted, but he held onto her, not letting her pull away. She whimpered, then buried her face in his shirt, her tears soaking through the material. _

"_Sh," he whispered. "It's okay. Finn's okay."_

_She pushed away from him a bit. "How do you know that, huh? You __**can't**__ know that! And here I am, kissing you while my boyfriend is in a hostile country somewhere! He could be lying in a ditch, bleeding to death! He could already be dead! And I'm kissing you!" she reiterated, a full-fledged sob preventing her from continuing further. _

_As Puck soothed her, thoughts were speeding through his mind like a NASCAR race. _

_ When Rachel was able to compose herself a little, she started speaking again. "I don't know anything anymore, Noah. I used to know __**everything**__. I knew what I wanted to do with my life, I knew who I wanted to spend my life with, I knew it all. Now I feel like nothing is the same. The guy who I thought I wanted to spend my life with is gone, I haven't heard from him, I don't know if he's alive, and for some reason, I'm here kissing you, and it feels so darn good!" Whoa, Puck wasn't expecting that last part. Not that he was complaining; Rachel was pretty much repeating the same things over and over again, but that last part was new, and boy, it felt good. Well, it'd have felt a lot better if he didn't have the Finn thing to worry about…_

_ "Rachel, I'm going to talk now, okay?" Puck said, speaking to her like a child, but it seemed to be the only approach that he thought would work. She nodded. It was working. "Rach, Finn left you here to go serve in Iraq; he knew the risks, he's not dumb. If something happened to him," Rachel whimpered, and Puck hastily added, "and I'm not saying it did, but if something did happen, you would deal with it. But you wouldn't be dealing with it alone, Rachel. I will __**always**__ be here for you, do you understand? I will __**not**__ let you suffer alone; I will be here for you through it all, alright?"_

_ Rachel looked up at him, the tears in her eyes sparkling like diamonds. She nodded, mutely. _

_ "But for right now, we don't know what's going on, Rach. It could be that Finn just hasn't had a chance to contact you. Don't jump to the worst conclusion, okay? I know it's hard not to, but you're strong and you can do this."_

_ As Puck finished, Rachel looked at him with so many emotions in her eyes, he didn't know how to interpret them all. Then she clung to him as if she was never going to let go. _

_ Puck knew he had to broach the other subject though. "As for the kiss, well, we've been spending a lot of time together, Rach. It's only natural that we'd been drawn to each other after all the emotionally-charged things we've been through. The kiss, as amazing as it was for me, I realize is not really what you want, what you're ready for; therefore, we can just forget about it for now, okay?"_

_ Rachel muttered something against his shirt that he didn't understand. "What?" he asked._

_ She muttered it again, but Puck still couldn't hear her. "I can't understand you," he said._

_ "I said, what if I don't want to forget about it?" Rachel said more clearly. _

_ "Rachel…" Puck started, but she interrupted him._

_ "I know the kiss was wrong, Noah, but at the time, it really did feel right. I know this is wrong, so wrong, but I just have so many things going on, I'm a jumble of thoughts and emotions. I can't sort through any of them right now, and whenever I'm alone, I always end up trying to. When we kissed, all thoughts left my head, I could only feel…and what I felt was good. I just felt good and warm and loved again, and it feels like it's been so long since I've felt that way."_

_ "What are you saying, Rachel?" Puck asked, not sure what she was getting at._

_ "I'm saying that I know this is wrong on so many levels, but I just can't deal with everything right now. I need an escape route, and for me, __**you're**__ my escape route. Being with you makes me feel lighter, happier, and that's something I really need right now. Before, it was okay just to hang out with you, but now that this all out in the open, I guess I kind of want more." _

_ Puck was flabbergasted. "What do you mean, you want more?"_

_ "I'm saying that I __**want**__ to hang out with you, have fun with you. I'm saying that I __**want**__ to kiss you! I don't just want to forget about it, Noah!"_

_ Puck was literally speechless. He didn't know what to make of this. He just stared at her, trying to see if this was really Rachel._

_ When Puck didn't respond for a few moments, a horrified expression appeared on Rachel's face. "Oh my gosh, I'm being so selfish and now you're repulsed by me! See, I'm a terrible person! What kind of person asks their best friend to be friends with benefits just so that they can feel a little bit better? I'm so selfish! I should be locked up! They should just cart me away now!" she wailed._

_ Puck did the only thing he could think of: he kissed her. _

_ The second kiss was as awesome as the first; even better. Both Puck and Rachel both got into the kiss, deepening it within seconds. They were pressed so close together, you couldn't have gotten a music sheet between them. After a couple of minutes, Rachel slid her hands under his shirt, and Puck realized it was time to pull away. Darn, it was annoying to have to be the noble one! He wished he could revert back to his early high school days when he was just a jerk and did what he wanted, rarely considering what others wanted. _

_ "Rachel, this is too fast. We have to stop, babe," Okay, that last word slipped out, but the term of endearment (what? It __**was**__ a term of endearment!) felt so good directed at her. _

_ When Rachel pulled away to look at him, he could see the fear reappear in her eyes. "You don't want me?" she asked in what had to be the most pathetic voice ever. _

_ "No, no, no," Puck said. "C'mon, Rach, you know that's not true. I've never wanted __**anything**__ as badly as I want you. But you know this isn't right." He saw start to speak, but didn't give her the chance. "What I mean is that if we're going to do this, we're not going to sleep together now. Let's take it slow, __**very**__ slow, and then we'll see where and how it goes, okay?" _

_ A smile spread slowly across Rachel's face. "Thank you, Noah," she said simply. He smiled back at her. _

"Whoa," Quinn breathed. "That's some intense stuff, Puck."

"No kidding," Puck said, clearing his head from the dreams he was having about kissing Rachel. Yes, he knew the whole situation was wrong, it was wrong and unfair to Finn, but he felt like he couldn't help it. He wanted to be there for Rachel. If things had gone the way they were supposed to in high school, _he'd_ have been the one with Rachel all these years, he just knew it! Yes, Finn ended up getting to her first, but now Rachel wanted _him_, Puck; how could he resist it?

A.N. Okay, I know these characters, particularly Rachel, might've seemed pretty OOC in this chapter, but the whole point is that she's really distraught and she's just so emotional, she's clinging to anything she feels is stabilizing to her, and right now, that's Puck. I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please review and tell me what you think! Oh, and for some reason, even though I probably wouldn't write a story about them, the Quinn-Artie pairing has the potential to be really cute, I think, so I have them as a side pairing in this story.


	10. Chapter 10

It had been the best 4 months of Puck's life. In some ways, it should have been the worst, but there was a shining light that filled his days that made it hard to be depressed or angry.

It'd been almost 5 months since anyone had heard from Finn. When 2 months had passed, Rachel, Puck and Mrs. Hudson had gotten together and privately mourned their respective boyfriend, friend, and son. They had decided that 8 and a half weeks was indicative that the worst had happened. The strange thing was that they hadn't even been contacted. Yet they didn't let that deter them from deciding that it was more harmful than beneficial to keep holding onto hope. There comes a point where hope ends up being futile, draining everything out of your system just so you can keep holding on.

It had been Mrs. Hudson who'd decided that they needed to get together as the people who loved Finn the most and get some closure, allowing them to move on with their lives. It had been the worst day of all of their lives; yet through adversity, strength and good emerge. Rachel had been a mess for 3 weeks after their eulogizing gathering. Puck had tried to be there for her, tried to calm her down and make her feel better, but it hadn't worked so well. He wasn't surprised. Truth is, _he'd_ been a pretty big mess, too, but he kept it inside, feeling that he had to hold it together externally for Rachel. He'd gone home a couple of nights and found tears pricking at his eyes, wishing that his time with Rachel didn't have to come about as a result of the loss of his best friend.

Gradually, though, as hard as it was to believe, they'd been able to pull themselves together. Rachel had started going back to work, Puck had started making jokes again, and Mrs. Hudson? Well, she'd taken on gardening as something productive to do, to "keep herself busy," as she'd told Puck and Rachel.

So, even though there was a really sucky month in the middle of there, the last 4 months had still been pretty good. Well, maybe he should just stick with saying that the last 3 months had been really awesome. That way nobody was offended.

Either way, Puck and Rachel had only gotten closer. As stated before, adversity has its advantages. It's horrible to go through and to deal with, but ultimately, it ended up making the bond between Puck and Rachel even stronger than before, something for which Puck was very thankful. Plus, if the past 3 months were awesome, well the last 2 months of those 3 months were _beyond amazing_. As a result of their growing closeness, Puck and Rachel had gotten more intimate, too. No longer was it the occasional kiss or an impromptu make-out session every so often. No, now they were really together. Puck still remembered what Rachel had said to him when she let him know that she wanted to be with him.

"_Noah," she'd said. "I can't thank you enough for what you've done for me over the past several months. You've been the best friend anyone could ever ask for. But you haven't only been a friend, Noah. You've somehow ingrained yourself into my heart, and I can't imagine you ever leaving. I know initially we said this would be a very light, unattached relationship…but I was wondering if we could make it more?" She looked unsure of herself, as if she wasn't sure what his reaction would be. "We've just been through so much together. You've really been there for me, right from the beginning. And ever since we," she gulped, "decided Finn wasn't coming back, you've been my rock; I don't know what I'd do without you. You helped me start living my life again, Noah, and getting back to work and an everyday routine aren't the only things I want now. I know this may seem kind of fast," and here she started starting very fast, a sure sign of some good ol' fashioned rambling ahead, "but it's really not because it's been developing for a while and we've known each other so long and-"_

"_Rachel!" Puck interrupted, a grin on his face. "Spit it out!"_

_She blushed. "Right. Anyway, with all the time spent together and everything, Noah, I've really started falling for you. I thought maybe we could move on with our relationship."_

_Puck's heart was beating erratically, but he wanted to make sure that he and Rachel were on the same page. "Move on? What do you mean by that?"_

_Rachel blushed again. "I thought maybe we could kind of, you know, be together, a couple, more officially. Not just the random kiss or whatever."_

_Puck couldn't believe it. It was like all his dreams were becoming a reality. Well, maybe not __**all**__ of them, but he'd take what he could get! _

"_Rachel, that sounds, well, I mean, it sounds amazing. Are you sure this is what you want? Are you sure you're really ready to let go of everything you had with Finn and move on?"_

"_Finn will always be in my heart, but I have to face that he's gone, and that now, you're in my heart, too." _

_Puck stepped closer to her, gently took her face in his hands, and kissed her. He kissed her with all the passion, love (yes, love), longing, and emotion that he felt for her that he'd bottled up for years. She kissed him back. _

That had been when the dynamic between them had really changed. Now Puck had no qualms about grabbing Rachel's hand and holding it in his own, kissing her any time he felt like it, or even staying overnight. He used to sleep on the couch, but for the past month, he'd been staying in Rachel's bed. There was still a hole in their lives where Finn used to be, don't think there wasn't, but they were slowly getting past it, moving on with their lives and dealing with it.

Puck was shaken out of his ponderings of life by his phone ringing because he had a text message. He saw it was from Rachel, grinned, and opened it.

**Remember, dinner at my house 2nite. B there 6 k? –R**

Like he'd forget! He quickly texted her back. **Cant wait. :-) **

**- - - - - -**

He showed up at Rachel's door at 5:55, holding a bottle of sweet white wine. He knocked, then walked in. He used to chastise her for keeping her door unlocked, until she once gave him this really incredulous look and said, "I unlock it for _you_, Noah! I don't keep it unlocked regularly! If I know you're coming over, though, I unlock it around 10 minutes before you're due to arrive!"

He still wasn't thrilled though because who was to say that some psycho wouldn't show up at her door in the 10 minutes between when she unlocked the door and when he came? He didn't make a big deal out of it, and decided just to show up a few minutes early usually so that he wouldn't have to worry about it.

"Rach?" He called, walking in. "You here?"

"We're having dinner in 5 minutes, Noah! Where do you think I'd be, a trip to Florida?" she called, and he headed to the kitchen where he heard her rattling around.

"Good to know your sarcasm is still in tact," he said, walking into the kitchen, placing down the wine bottle, and going over to the stove where she was mixing tomato sauce (which smelled heavenly, by the way). He leaned down and kissed her, and what was meant to be a quick kiss soon turned into a nice make-out session.

She pushed away after a couple of minutes though, slapping him lightly on the chest. "Noah! While I appreciate your kind greeting, if you would like to have dinner on the table on time, you can't distract me like that! The food will burn and then we'll be hungry!" She resumed stirring the sauce.

"Sorry, babe, couldn't help it. I'm more hungry for _you_ than food, you know," he said raising his eyebrows.

She laughed. She used to scold him for his cheesy lines, but when he'd confronted her about the fact that he _knew_ she liked them, she'd admitted he was right. Now she just laughed, a faint blush gracing her features every time. He _loved _that blush; it was _his_.

A minute passed with Rachel stirring the sauce for a few more seconds, tasting a bit, adding a dash of garlic powder, tasting it again, and then turning off the flame. She clapped her hands twice and said, "Let's eat!"

She put the sauce into a small bowl and they walked to the table which had already been set up, a bowl of spaghetti placed in the center. She put down the bowl of sauce and Puck pulled out her chair for her before sitting down himself.

"What a gentleman," she teased, letting a dramatic sigh escape her lips.

"That's me," he smirked. "Did you want to reenact the famous spaghetti scene from The Lady and the Tramp, Rach?" Oh, darn, he didn't mean to let it escape that he'd watched that movie. He hoped maybe Rachel wouldn't notice the slip, but alas, it was not so. He saw her eyes light up, and she started giggling.

"Noah! You've watched that movie?!" She was laughing harder now.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, my sister made me watch it when I was babysitting her when she was little, ok? Can we just eat?" he said, scooping some spaghetti onto his plate and then doling out a portion of sauce on top of it. Rachel was still laughing as he twirled some spaghetti around his fork and stuffed it in his mouth.

As he was chewing, her laughter started dying down and she served herself some food, too. As she was getting the spaghetti onto her fork, she started talking again. "I'm sorry, Noah, but just the fact that you made a reference to _that_ Disney movie, which is about dogs falling in love, not even _people_, it was just very funny!" She giggled again and looked up at him, who had already finished a third of the food on his plate. She hadn't even taken one bite yet! Stupid slow-eating girls…

As they ate, they chatted about different things. Puck told her about the nest that'd fallen onto his octogenarian neighbor's head earlier that day, resulting in his neighbor screaming and yelling for 10 minutes that someone should call 911. Unfortunately, someone _had _called 911 because even though they had no clue what the lady was yelling about, they hadn't wanted to take any chances. Five minutes later, the lady was still yelling, _still_ nobody had a clue what the lady's problem was, and the police pulled up, only to find out that a bird's nest had been blown out of a tree by the wind and wound up in the lady's hair. The police had _not_ been pleased to have arrived so quickly for such a situation. For everyone else, though, it was hilarious.

Rachel started talking about her day, people she'd run into at the grocery store, etc. and had just looked up from her plate, about to take another bite of spaghetti (she was still on her first helping; Puck was on his third) when she started cracking up again. Like, tears were pouring out of her eyes, she was holding her sides cracking up.

Puck was completely caught off-guard. "What?" he asked, looking around. "I don't get it!" he whined, wanting in on the joke.

It took another minute before Rachel even _attempted_ talking. "You- you- you" she wheezed, and started laughing all over again.

"What?" he asked, wiping his cheeks and chin, thinking he had something on his face. His fingers came away clean.

Thirty seconds later, Rachel had finally composed herself enough to say, "You have some sauce on your forehead! How the heck did you manage to get sauce on your _forehead_?!" and then she was laughing again.

If Puck had been any less of a stud than he was, he'd have blushed for sure. He wiped his forehead and sure enough, there was a little bit of sauce now on his fingers. "Whatever," he grumbled. "It could happen to anybody."

"Are you kidding me?!" Rachel laughed, "_Anybody_ could get sauce on their chin or on their cheeks! But who gets sauce on their forehead?!"

"It's, uh, a very badass thing to do, you know," he said, trying to save himself, but knowing it was weak even as he said it.

"Yeah, right, " Rachel scoffed. "Sure."

"Hey, it was just a bit of sauce!" he protested. "It's not that big of a deal! Besides," he said, his eyes lighting up as an idea struck him, "It's not nearly as bad as having a whole line of sauce across my forehead or something."

Rachel looked confused. "Uh, I guess so, but I can't imagine that that's very comforting. I mean" she stopped as she saw Puck dip his finger into the sauce, get out of his chair, and approach her side of the table. "Noah Puckerman, you _wouldn't_," she said, eyes wide.

"Oh, wouldn't I?" he asked, then swiped a nice red line of sauce across Rachel's forehead. He then swiped another line on her cheek, and had enough sauce left on his finger to make a couple of little dots on her chin.

"You-!" Rachel started, but Puck put a finger against her lips.

"Don't worry, Rachel, I'm not trying to start a tomato sauce fight. I'll clean it up; I promise."

"Good," she said firmly. "You know where the extra napkins are. Please go get a couple."

"Oh, I don't need any napkins to clean up this mess," Puck said. Rachel started to ask a question, but he saw understanding dawn in her eyes. He leaned over and gently started kissing her forehead, letting his tongue escape his mouth to lick up the sauce. He then did this all over her face, "cleaning up" all the sauce he'd painted on her, before ending at her lips.

Things quickly escalated from there. They moved to the couch soon after that since it was significantly more comfortable than staying by the table. It was as Puck was kissing right above where Rachel's bra was (her shirt having been a couple minutes prior) that he let his emotions get the best of him.

"I love you, Rachel," he said, moving back up to her lips to kiss her there. She pulled away from him slightly, shock on her face.

"What?" she asked, surprise evident in her voice.

"I said I love you, Rachel," Puck answered, his voice low. "I do. I know it seems like this relationship is moving kind of fast, but since when has anything about this relationship been ordinary? I've had feelings for you for so long, but over the past couple of months, I've really fallen in love with you."

Rachel's eyes were moving back and forth, as if trying to scan him. "It's okay," he told her. "It's fine if you're not ready to say it. I just wanted _you_ to know how _I _feel about you, okay?" She still wasn't speaking. "I didn't freak you out or anything, did I?" he asked, uncertain.

Finally Rachel got her voice back. "N-no, it's not that, it's just that-" she stopped.

Puck _really_ wanted to hear what she had to say. "It's just what?

Rachel started to say something, "It's just-" but there was a noise. "What was that?" she asked. "Was that a knock?"

Puck shook his head, not really caring what the noise was. "Wait, Rach, what did you want to say?" he asked gently.

She looked at him, opening her mouth, but the noise came again, and this time it was louder; it was definitely a knock. "One second," she said, and made her way to the door.

Without even peeking through the peephole, a habit that Puck was most displeased about, she opened the door. Puck came a few steps behind her. Standing at the door was a disheveled, dirty, grungy, worse-for-wear man who looked suspiciously like… (A.N. C'mon, you all know who it's going to be…join in with me here…)

"_Finn_?!" Rachel said, then fainted.

A.N. Ok, everyone, it's been a REALLY long time since I've last written. I knew where I wanted this story to go, I just didn't feel like sitting down and writing it. Or, when I did feel like it, there were about 10 other things I needed to be doing. So here's the update. I hope I'll be able to update again soon. I'll see how many people review so I can know how many people are still interested in reading this story. If it's a good amount of people, I'll continue. Hope you enjoyed! Please review and let me know what you think!

Btw, I know some of the stuff in this chapter is a bit cliché, but hey, I'm not adverse to the occasional cliché! It just depends on the context and the specific cliché.


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